Solving a 100 year-old maths puzzle

For 100 years mathematicians have been trying to solve the question of whether it is possible to fit all four points of a rectangle into any given closed curve shape. Or, more bluntly, can you fit a square peg into a round hole? Research so far had found that it was only possible to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole if the peg in question was of certain proportions, until now. Lockdown inspiration Stuck in Japan due to Covid-19 restrictions, our mathematician Professor Andrew Lobb decided to tackle this conundrum, along with a colleague from Boston College, and together they cracked it. To help explain it - let's look at an age-old problem. Most of us have had the irritation of a wobbly table at a restaurant. But, whilst some of us just wedge something under one leg to try and resolve the issue, this is actually a real-life illustration of the 'square peg problem'. The mathematics of a wobble Imagine a series of contour lines, a bit like an Ordnance Survey map, connecting all of the points of the same height on the restaurant floor.